Day 1

It is often a good idea to diet before you spend two weeks in a bathing suit. But here I am sitting, sunbaked and jetlagged after a two week trip to Indonesia, kicking off a two-week cleanse today. In truth, it is a good time for a reboot, and not just because it’s a near year, a time when everyone makes healthy eating resolutions. Even before my trip this holiday season has seemed, well, heartier than normal: more deadline stress (which in my world equals snacking), more partying (my husband and half my friends turned forty this fall–I’m due for the same number in May), and, thanks to an early December ankle injury, a whole lot less exercise than normal. I’m happy with my body, which is strong not skinny, but that doesn’t mean I want my weight to continue creeping up. After avoiding some particularly truth-telling pants for a few months, I had plenty of time to contemplate my thighs in the unforgiving Pacific sun.

I wish I could say the cleanse was strictly my idea, but I’m afraid I’m not that disciplined. Instead, my Bon Appetit editor proposed it to me. (Speaking of which, you can’t help but feel self-conscious when an editor asks you if you want to go on a diet. How could she tell? Had my writing seemed a little heavier than normal?)

I was kind of asking for it, I suppose. Last year in an article for Slate, I delved into several diet cooking books and reviewed their recipes from a purely aesthetic basis. At the end, I suggested that the health-minded eater might be able to do better by working with normal cookbooks. Pleasure, I argued, is a key part of maintaining a healthy diet. I know if I forced myself to eat egg-white omelets and turkey bacon that I’d find myself back to my old habits quicker than you can say “acai power shake.” My editor basically challenged me to try to combine the pleasure principle with a little dietary discipline and come up with something we could call a Food-Lover’s Cleanse. And I wouldn’t do it alone. I would enlist the help of a nutritionist.

As I sought a registered dietician to help me plan the cleanse, I knew I needed to find someone who shares my hedonistic bent, but who could figure out how to channel those indulgent impulses into a two week dietary reboot. Cooking is a big part of my life. (Several years ago I worked in restaurant kitchens, briefly witnessing the brilliance of chefs at Campanile, Spago, and Chez Panisse.) I also I wanted the program to entail regular, healthy meals that could be enjoyed with my family or even with company. I had to make sure there would be no fasting days, no all-juice days, all-cabbage soup days, or the like. I don’t want to set the wrong kind of example of my kids (and frankly I don’t want to be that hungry).

When I saw Marissa Lippert’s blog, DIET is a four-letter word, I knew I’d happened upon the right nutritionist. Marissa celebrates food from hoisin-kissed chicken wings to artisanal cheeses, Her approach is not of abstinence, but balance, which makes a lot of sense to me. After reading through a food diary I had prepared, she recommended several changes for the cleanse, but (and this is why she’s the right advisor for me) no processed diet foods, no totally proscribed foods, and no pseudoscientific “tonics.”

While I was putting together the cleanse, I had a question for her about whether to recommend cooking chicken with the skin on or off. Here’s the response she gave me: “I actually always keep the skin on when roasting a chicken – and generally even buy chicken breasts bone-in, skin-on …much more flavor and if you ditch the majority of the skin when eating, you’re able to keep calories in check. That’s the equation for healthy yet delicious and flavor food in my opinion.” You can see why I like her.

The cleanse starts today. To ease my digestion (and trim a few calories,) I’m skipping dairy that’s not yogurt or kefir (more on that later) for the two weeks. To trim calories and give my body a break from a boozy December, I’m limited to 2-4 drinks a week. (I suspect I might abstain altogether, since an open bottle of wine is hard to resist.) In exchange I have to drink a lot of water (something I’m always behind on). I’m upping fruits and vegetables, and emphasizing some particularly healthy ones like dark leafy greens, citrus, beets, and–hooray!–avocados. And hardest for me: I’m cutting way back (though not entirely) on bread and pasta-the cushion in my diet that has helped lay some extra padding on my waistline.

The other goal we had with the plan was to keep it interesting, to make the most of the flavors of the season, and to try out recipes from some of the most intriguing new cookbooks and a few web favorites. To balance the cooking I’ll be doing for dinners, I also made a point of using leftovers for most lunches-a little trick to avoid wasting both food and energy.

So here goes. I’ll post at least every weekday for the next two weeks so we can talk cooking, cleansing, and more. I do hope you’ll join me as I try to recalibrate my eating habits without losing the pleasure I get from good food.